Daily Times

Sir: Everybody is aware that it has been an uphill task for Pakistan to handle issues related to the mushroom growth of madaris (seminaries) since the US war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. With unlimited financial resources, hundreds of new madaris were established to produce fodder for the US war.

Since the exit of the US in the 1980s, we are unable to put the genie back in the bottle. The presence of tens of thousands of unregistered madaris being funded by unknown or undisclosed sources, centuries old curriculum, links with sectarian militant groups and their outfits, involvement in fighting proxy wars on behalf of other countries and no contribution of their students in the country’s market-based economy, leading to joblessness among seminary students, are a few of the issues the government is worried about.

Obviously, it is time to come up with firm plans to introduce reforms in these madaris or to shut them on a permanent basis. Let us face the facts. Whether we like it or not, the Pakistani state ignored them when these madaris produced good and bad Taliban or got involved in proxy wars. Now, it is time to act. The government needs to make serious efforts to get all the madaris registered, root out militancy-related education/training, freeze foreign funding, scrutinise local funding, modernise the curriculum to let students contribute to the economy and stop sectarian-based education altogether.

MASOOD KHAN

Jubail, Saudi Arabia